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October 6, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Carriage to Horseless Carriage

“The automobile owner uses his car six days a week either in direct pursuit of his business or as a means of quickly transporting himself and others to and from that place of business.”

“The fact that he may take his family out on a Sunday is not a pleasure trip, but a necessary recreation in order, to ‘keep fit’ for his work.” (McAlpine, Schuman Carriage, Honolulu Star Bulletin, November 3, 1907)

“The automobile is here to stay. If we had better roads there would be more automobiles sold, naturally.” (Gustav Schuman, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 24, 1916)

Gustav Adolph Schuman was born July 6, 1867 in Dresden, Germany to Charles and Martha (Schmalden) Schuman. (His father was a state highway inspector.) Mr. Schuman attended the public schools until he was fourteen.

He left school and started as an apprentice to learn furniture making in Germany. In 1884, he followed an older brother to Hawaiʻi and took a position as a carriage trimmer (upholsterer) with the Carriage Manufacturing Co.

Four years later, he started a carriage shop of his own, and in 1896 he disposed of it to enter the livery business (boarding and care of horses) with the purchase of the Club Stables. In 1900, he built the Territorial Stables on King Street, which he sold two years later.

“Gustav Schuman in 1897 started a business in carriages and harness on Fort Street above Hotel. All of the goods sold at the time were American made, and the business steadily increased year by year.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 24, 1916)

“The business carried on by G. Schuman has been incorporated, and from this time the name will be G. Schuman, Ltd. The corporation will have the right to do all kinds of merchandising, handling real estate, and do a livery and sale business”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 6, 1901)

“The principal attention will be given to the carriage and harness lines, and the hacks which have been run for several years by Schuman, the sales of animals and their hiring, will be carried on only as before, there being no intention to expand at this time.”

“The declared objects of the company are to deal in carriages and all kinds of conveyances and vehicles, in grain, provisions and feed, horses and real estate, and to have stables for the purpose of keeping horses to hire.”

“While there is little chance that the company should go into general livery business, there are many members of the company who foresee that there will be some difficulty in the future, if they try to keep out of this all the time.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 6, 1901)

“At the time of the organization of the business the concern covered 2,000 feet of floor space. There is now 80,000 feet of floor space in the new building.”

“In 1897 there were two employees busily engaged in handling the business. Today the establishment is a veritable beehive, with upward of 100 employees carrying on the business that is forty times larger than that of less than twenty years ago.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 24, 1916)

“From a modest beginning in the days before the ‘horseless carriage,’ the Shuman Carriage company has developed into a concern known throughout the territory and with dealings in every part of the island.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 31, 1917)

“Mr Schuman visited the world’s exposition at St. Louis in 1904, and brought back the first car with him. It was a (gasoline powered) Ford. Mr Schuman drove this car, and the first year eight of the cars were sold. One of the features of the sales was that the Club Stables bought four cars to be placed in the rent services in 1905.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 24, 1916)

“The Schuman Company was a going concern before the auto invaded the ‘Paradise of the Pacific.’ Foreseeing the possibilities of the gasoline engine, Gus Schuman took up the auto and soon it superseded the wagon and carriage business in importance.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 31, 1917)

“During the early years in the automobile business Mr Schuman, like many other men, believed that the automobile was merely a fad, and expected it to die out in time.”

“But as the fad grew to be a necessity he took advantage of the opportunities and went into the automobile business with a purpose, and as a result the sales average about one car per day at the present time.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 24, 1916)

The company grew and at a point was the largest privately-owned automobile concern in the Territory, and the agent for Ford, Lincoln, Hudson and Essex cars, Federal and White trucks, Goodrich tires, tractors and various automobile accessories. (Nellist)

“The various departments, including the motorcycle, bicycle and accessories, are connected. … Other departments are: automobile accessories and tires, including all supplies; carriage and wagon materials; farming implements; auto repair shop; carriage shop, which includes woodworking, blacksmith and trimming and painting departments; garage, including the Associated Garage on Bethel and Merchant streets, where a service is still retained for automobile owners.” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 24, 1916)

Over the years, it was situated in several locations. One notable site was at the corner of Beretania and Richards, Schuman bought it in the mid-1920s. Before he modified the building it had been the Central Union Church (they needed more room and built a new facility down Beretania Street.)

The Schuman display room had stained glass windows. (Schuman later moved down Beretania for his later, and last, Honolulu facility. Schuman Carriage closed its dealerships in 2004.) (The first autos that appeared on the streets of Honolulu on October 8, 1899 were Woods electric cars (this story is about later cars with internal combustion engines. (Schmitt.))

October 5, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fire

When you rub two things together, you are creating friction, which makes things heat up. And when things heat up enough, they can catch fire. (Buddhi Rai, Assistant Professor of Physics at UH Maui College)

“The natives produced fire by rubbing two dry sticks, of the hibiscus tiliaceus [hau],” (William Ellis, 1823) Hau sticks, because of their lightness, were used in making kites. “But perhaps the most important use of this soft, light wood was in fire making …”

“… a piece of hau wood laid on the ground was grooved with a pointed stick of hard olomea wood thrust back and forth until the little pile of dust at the end of the groove away from the fire maker smouldered and then was covered with tinder and blown into a flame.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“On Kauai Hawaiians have said that there were two varieties of bamboo native to the island, the ‘ohe Hawaii and the ‘ohe Kahiki, as throughout the archipelago. The ‘ohe Hawaii, described on Kauai as green in color with long joints and large leaves, was regarded as too soft for use in house building or for fishing rods …”

“… the long slender internodes were good for making bamboo rattles, called pu‘ili, used in certain hula performances, and for the nose flute (‘ohe-hano-ihu). This type of light bamboo was also used to make’ ohe-puhi-ahi, for blowing on the embers of a fire.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

For millennia, fire was integral to many Indigenous peoples’ way of life. Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians used fire to clear areas for crops and travel, to manage the land for specific species of both plants and animals, to hunt game, and for many other important uses. (NPS)

“Before the coming of man, native forest clothed the islands from seashore to timber line as it does today in undisturbed areas of certain other Pacific islands.” (Elwood Zimmerman)

“After the arrival of the Polynesians, … the rapid retreat of the forests began. Fires set by the natives, as is still being done all over the Pacific, made great advances through the lowland and dry-land forests.” (Elwood Zimmerman)

The “forest was cleared by the Polynesian settlers of the valley, with the aid of fire, during the expansion of shifting cultivation … The cumulative effects of forest clearance and habitat modification through the use of fire led to major changes in lowland ecology.” (Patrick Kirch)

“The cumulative effects of shifting agricultural practices (i.e., slash-and-bum or swidden), prevalent among Polynesian and Pacific peoples, probably created and maintained this open grassland mixed with pioneering species and species that tolerate light and regenerate after a fire.” (Holly McEldowney)

“With remarkable consistency, early visitors … describe an open parkland gently sloping to the base of the woods. This open but verdant expanse, broken by widely spaced ‘cottages’ or huts, neatly tended gardens, and small clusters of trees, was comfortingly reminiscent of English or New England countrysides.” (McEldowney)

“Kalokuokamaile (Hoku o Hawaii, August 8, 1918), a planter of experience on the island of Hawaii, wrote at some length on planting methods … [for weeding large] patches, in ‘setting the patch on fire here are the rules …”

“… weed the borders all around the patch, leaving a wide margin; then burn the patch twice.’ It is not clear whether the two burnings took place at considerable intervals, or not.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

Early Polynesians traveling and settling in Hawaiʻi brought with them shoots, roots, cuttings and seeds of various plants for food, cordage, medicine, fabric, containers, all of life’s vital needs.

“Canoe crops” (Canoe Plants) is a term to describe the group of plants brought to Hawaiʻi by these early Polynesians. Domesticated animals, including pigs, dogs and chickens were also introduced. Kukui was one of these canoe crops. The kukui has multiple uses, including light, fuel, medicine, dye and ornament. (Choy)

“When (the Hawaiians) use them in their houses, ten or twelve are strung on the thin stalk of the cocoa-nut leaf, and look like a number of pealed chestnuts on a long skewer.”

“The person who has charge of them lights a nut at one end of the stick, and hold it up, till the oil it contains is consumed, when the flame kindles on the one beneath it, and he breaks off the extinct nut with a short piece of wood, which serves as a pair of snuffers. Each nut will burn two or three minutes, and, it attended, give a tolerable light.” (Ellis, 1826)

“Large quantities of kukui, or candle nuts, were hanging up in long strings in different parts of his house. … Sometimes the natives burn them to charcoal, which they pulverize, and use tattooing their skin, painting their canoes, surf-boards, idols or drums; but they are generally used as a substitute for candles or lamps.”

“When employed for fishing by torchlight, four or five strings are enclosed in the leaves of the pandanus, which not only keeps them together, but adds to the light they give.” (Ellis, 1826)

Hawaiians cooked with an imu, or ground oven. Taro “was put [i]n a hole in the ground about 18 inches deep [that was] laid [with] fuel that will burn long enough to heat the cooking stones (pohaku imu) to almost the temperature of red-hot charcoal.”

“On the fuel are laid the cooking stones, which are roundish stream or beach boulders of porous lava that will not explode or crumble under intense heat. These stones are called ‘eho.”

“When the fire is burned out, the unburned wood and embers are prodded out with a stick and the stones are leveled (ho‘okane‘e or ho‘ohiolo ). Ti or banana leaves, kukaepua‘a grass [itchy crabgrass], ‘ilima ku kule, or seaweed is laid on the hot stones, and on this are placed the unpeeled but washed corms as they come from the patch.”

“Other foods – sweet potatoes, yams, arrowroot, fish, pig, chicken, and so forth, wrapped in ti leaves with or without accompanying greens – may be laid in with the taro. Over the food to be cooked are laid coarsely woven mats and banana and ti leaves to keep in the heat.”

“Sometimes a little water is poured on the food before the covering (ka poi) is laid on, unless the leaf covering on the hot stones will make ample steam.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“The main use of ti leaves and the chief purpose for which ti was planted thickly about dwellings was to have at hand plenty of the broad tough leaves used in wrapping food for cooking, for preservation, and for transportation.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“Depending on size of imu, variety of taro, and size of corms, the steaming may take from two to six hours. Wild taros, the corms of which contain much calcium oxalate crystal, must be steamed long to dissolve the little prickly spikes which are responsible for ‘itch’ (mane‘o) caused in the throat by coarse taros …”

“… mild taros like Lauloa need be cooked only a couple of hours. … Poi making and imu cooking were usually [and always, anciently] the work of men and boys”.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

Another use of fire was in making a lime to ensnare birds … “The bird lime (kēpau) is made from the sap of the breadfruit. Cut the breadfruit bark and the white sap flows, and when the sap is dry, say in the evening, the sap is hardened. You go and gather the sap. When enough has been gathered, the sap can be made into bird lime.”

“Then you go and gather some raw kukui, removing the shell, you keep its meat. You then go and get the ‘clover’ for making bird lime (‘ihi-ku-kēpau, the Nasturtium sarmentosum), it is a black pā‘ihi, and you mix it with the raw kukui. Then you chew it, and the kukui and pā‘ihi become slimy.”

“This is put into a wauke bark cloth (it is a tough piece), then the juice of the kukui and pā‘ihi are squeezed into the ‘ōpihi (shell), it is the ‘pot’ for cooking the broth over the fire.”

“When it starts to boil, the (‘ulu) gum is cut into small pieces and put in the juice of the kukui and pā‘ihi so it can boil. Then get two coconut mid-ribs or perhaps little sticks to stir this boiling juice. This is how it is done until the juice is cooked and becomes the birdlime. It is then place[d] into the empty ‘ōpihi or a ti leaf, wrapped up in ti leaves.” (Maly)

October 4, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka‘anapali Out Station

The American Protestant mission to the Islands had 19 Mission Stations with a mother mission station church (located in a larger population centers); in addition, ‘āpana (out station or branch) churches, each under the missionaries’ mother church.

As an example, by 1846, downtown Honolulu’s Kawaiaha‘o Church had established a series of at least 12 branch churches or ‘āpana, from Kalihi to Waikiki and well up into the valleys …

At Waikiki (sometimes called the Kalawina Church (or Calvinist or Congregational Church) – site was just mauka of the Moana Hotel), Kalihi, ‘A‘ala, Palama, Nuʻuanu, Mānoa (in the vicinity of the Manoa Valley Theatre), Kakaʻako (Puaikalani), Pauoa, Makiki, Pālolo, Kaimuki, and Moʻiliʻili (called Kamo‘ili‘ili, which is now the present site of the Mother Rice Preschool on King Street).

‘Āpana churches and Out Stations were in other areas; in 1841, Ephraim Clark reported, “An out station at Kaanapali has been maintained for 8 or 10 years. Since my residence at Lahainaluna, the principal care of this station has devolved on me. [Ephraim Clark].” (Ephraim Clark, Report of the Out Station at Kaanapali, May 1841)

“Ka‘anapali [also called Pōhaku-Kāʻana-pali and Kāʻanapali-pōhaku – lit. Kāʻana cliff] is the name of an ancient kalana [place name for sections of the island] that was obliterated by the Hawaiian Legislature in 1859 by combining its lands in a new Lahaina district.” [In 1859, Lāhaina and Kā‘anapali were merged to form the current Lahaina district. (Hawaiian Place Names)]

“The [Kā‘anapali] name was preserved by American Factors, Ltd, the developer of the Ka‘anapali resort complex. The outstanding geographical feature in the resort area is Pu’u Keka‘a, “the rumbling hill,” a volcanic cinder and spatter cone. Pu’u Keka‘a is most commonly known to local residents as Black Rock, a reference to the color of the cone.” (Clark)

“A good meeting house has been finished & dedicated during [1837]. It is 78 feet by 30 inside, built of dobies [adobe – mud bricks], with a good ti leaf roof, glass windows, pulpit, &c. The expenses defrayed by the people themselves.” (1837, Annual Report from Lahaina-1832-1847, Dwight Baldwin)

They built “a dobie house for the teacher with a room for the temporary accommodations of the missionary who supplies the pulpit. These have all been built by the people with the exception of the doors & windows of the dwelling house.” (Ephraim Clark, Report of the Out Station at Kaanapali, May 1841)

“Preaching has been maintained by Mr. Clark at Kaanapali during the year. He has also conducted a Bible class at the same place. A Sab. school has been taught by a graduate from the High School. The usual congregation has been about 500.”

“There has been no special attention to religion during the year. There are 14 chh [church] members at this station connected with the chh at Lahaina. One chh member has been under discipline with manifest [benefit] to himself & others.”

“A good school of children has been kept here by the graduate from the High School. He has also several other schools under his superintendance. His influence has been highly salutary in various ways. He has recently united with the chh at Lahainaluna.”

Kā’anapali was not the only Lahaina out station, “A native member of the chh has gone once each fortnight, during most of the year, on the Sab., to [Olowalu], 6 miles distant, where a congregation has met of about 200, & where a good meeting house of dobies has been finished & dedicated during the past year.”

“A dobie school house has since been built [at Kaanapali], & a dobie house for the teacher with a room for the temporary accommodations of the missionary who supplies the pulpit. These have all been built by the people with the exception of the doors & windows of the dwelling house.” (Ephraim Clark, Report of the Out Station at Kaanapali, May 1841)

“Until [1841] most of the church members residing at Kaanapali have been connected with the church at Lahaina. During the past year, it has been thought best to form a church in this place … There were also obvious advantages in having a church connected with the station.”

“A church was formed consisting of 16 members, 15 from the Lahaina church & 1 from Lahainaluna.” (Ephraim Clark, Report of the Out Station at Kaanapali, May 1841)

“The people have contributed something on the first [M]onday of the month, principally in work, which has been turned towards the support of the teacher, building dwelling houses &c. Children baptised 42. Marriages, since June 1st, 26.”

“Kaanapali embraces 10 or 12 miles of coast & containing 1341 inhabitants by the last census. In this district, there are 6 schools. These have been examined 3 times during the year. At the last examination there were 274 children present. A few were reported as absent.”

“Some impulse has been given to the schools by the new laws, but there is still much room for improvement. A small grant is needed from the Mission in aid of schools.” (Ephraim Clark, Report of the Out Station at Kaanapali, May 1841)

“This out Station is on the North West part of Maui, about 8 miles from Lahaina. It contains about 1500 inhabitants. The district is not well supplied with water except in the rainy season. Kalo, therefore, is not abundant, & the people are generally poor.”

“A church was organized here [in 1841] of 16 members which has since been increased to 88. Preaching, a Bible class & sabbath schools, church meetings &c have been sustained here during the year. Catholics have as yet made no inroads upon the district.”

“There are six schools in this district, the oversight of which has involved considerable time & care. Most of the children attend school. The schools have been examined three times during the year. “ (Ephraim Clark, report of labors at Kaanapali 1842)

“My labors among that people have been confined almost entirely to the sabbath owing to my duties in this Sem’y [Lahainaluna] during the week. I have, however, occasionally visited the different villages, & during this period have conversed several times with about 300 inquires.”

“During the first 10 months of this period, a theological student of this sem’y labored on Saturday in the different settlements & on the Sabbath preached at Honokohau, the last but one of the largest villages in the district.”

“The schools in the district are not flourishing. The cause is in the want of well qualified teachers. The inadequate pay, & even the failure of that for the portions of the year, have contributed to make even the poor teachers more inefficient & delinquent.”

“On the whole the year has been a prosperous one for the church. The attendance on pubic worship has been good, while the cases of discipline have been few.”

“They have rethatched their meeting house, while the church members at Honolulu have built & furnished a thatched house for my accommodations when I go among them & are now getting timbers for a roof to the stone meeting house whose walls have been up for 4 or 5 yrs past.”

“Perhaps the whole district of Kaanapali numbers 1200 people, stretched along the coast 8 miles in length & 2 or 3 in breadth. … We have reason to bless God & take courage.” (Timothy Hunt to Chamberlain, Sep 9, 1847)

“There are six schools in this district, the oversight of which has involved considerable time & care. Most of the children attend school. The schools have been examined three times during the year.” (Ephraim Clark, report of labors at Kaanapali 1842)

October 3, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lusitana Society

On September 30, 1878, a pioneer band of 180 Portuguese landed in Honolulu. The Portuguese entered Hawaiian society in large numbers between 1878 and 1913, predominantly, although not exclusively, to join the sugar plantation workforce. (Bastos)

“About 65 per cent of the Portuguese, who formed the bulk of the assisted Caucasian immigrants, were women and children, as against 19 per cent of the Japanese.”

“Therefore at a time when it cost but $87.75 to bring a Japanese laborer to the islands, it cost $266.15 to bring a Portuguese, including the passage of the nonproducing members of his family.” (Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1902)

“In the long run the discrepancy in cost was not so great, because the Portuguese settled in the country and raised up children there, so that they and their families were a permanent increment to the working population”.

“The Portuguese are largely employed in the semi-skilled occupations of the plantation … These people are an exceedingly hopeful element of the population. They are both industrious and frugal, and their vices are not of a sort to injure their efficiency as workers.” (Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1902)

Few returned to the Portuguese islands, and to the disappointment of the planters, very few renewed their contracts. (Portuguese Historical Museum)

On O‘ahu, they followed the classic pattern: when their contracts expired, they moved to town, concentrating in the Punchbowl and Pauoa districts. (Jardine)

“Around the base of Punchbowl is to be found a colony of Portuguese, who naturally draw together in this strange land, and there they distinguish themselves by the neatness of their dwellings, the growth of pretty (if common) flowers, and a general air of thrift is lacking on the part of many of their neighbors.” (PCA, Sep 23, 1884)

Here, street names commemorate famous Portuguese people and the areas from which they came: Lusitana, Funchal, Lisbon and Azores; Alencastre, Madeira, Morreira and Magellan; Correa, Enos and Osorio. (Jardin)

Lusitana Street was named for the Lusitana Society (sometimes referred to as Lusitania Society), although two with that name existed: the Sociedade Lusitana Beneficente de Hawaii, and the União Lusitana Hawaiiana, founded in 1882 and 1892, respectively. (Bastos) (Lusitania is the ancient name of West Hispania, and now a poetic name for Portugal. (Hawaiian Dictionary))

“Like most other immigrant groups with little or no access to established sources of capital, the Portuguese fostered accumulation of savings among their number.”

“But the Portuguese Benevolent Society was formed in order to be able to help individuals hit by adversity – invalids, widows, and orphans, for example.” (Correa & Knowlton)

“The remarkable financial results achieved by our Portuguese immigrants grow more apparent still in their Benevolent Societies, of which there are four in Honolulu – the Lusitana (1,900 members), the San Antonio (2,100 m), the Patria (125 m) and the San Martino (200 m), to which must be added the Camoes Court of Foresters, with two societies in Hilo.” (Thrum)

“Of all these, the ‘Lusitana’ is the only one which possesses a complete financial statement from its incipiency; it was created in 1882, especially to help the newly-arrived plantation laborers, and has been, for the greater part of its existence, sustained nearly exclusively by such laborers from savings out of their meager wages”.

“Moreover, the ‘Lusitana’ owns its own premises, has $53,000 safely invested, thereby helping members in mortgages, and it keeps an emergency fund of about $9,000.” (Thrum)

“This shows on the part of the members of this Association a very laudable spirit of providing for the future, as well as a pride to prevent themselves from becoming helpless objects of charity during sickness or accidents, which might well be imitated by other nationalities in this Territory.” (Thrum)

“It is no small accomplishment for a few thousand imported plantation laborers, mostly driven to Hawaii by distress in their own country and arriving in a nearly indigent condition …”

“… to have insured themselves and their families against the worst economic consequences of illness and death, and to have accumulated so large an amount of collective funds during the two or three decades that they have been settled in the Territory.” (Report of the Commissioner of Labor in Hawaii, Sep, 1906)

The Lusitana Society building was at the intersection of Alapai and Lunalilo. It was later used as a dance hall and academy, and as the home of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The site was later run over by the H1 freeway.

The Portuguese population all over Hawai‘i declined significantly in the early 1900s. Partially due to the Gold Rush in California and the 1906 San Francisco fire, many moved to California to help rebuild or to find their fortune. (NPS)

October 2, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

“Ownership”

“… an underlying principle was that objects not made by the human hand could not be owned, that is they could not be set aside for the exclusive or perpetual use of any individual …” (Linnekin)

‘Kumulipo’ is a prayer of dedication of the chief Lonoikamakahiki to the gods soon after his birth (around 1700.) The ‘pule’ (prayer) was given in around 1700.

The Kumulipo is a genealogical prayer chant linking the royal family to which it belonged not only to primary gods belonging to the whole people and worshiped in common with allied Polynesian groups.

It was not only to deified chiefs born into the living world, the Ao, within the family line, but to the stars in the heavens and the plants and animals useful to life on earth, who must also be named within the chain of birth and their representatives in the spirit world thus be brought into the service of their children who live to carry on the line in the world of mankind. (Beckwith)

It was their belief that their gods had created the land and the sea and everything on the land and in the sea. These resources were there for everyone’s use – land water and sea. Because these were created by the gods, they must be cared for. No one must take more than they need and everything must be shared. (Kelly)

In Hawaiian culture, natural and cultural resources were and are one and the same. Native traditions describe the formation (literally the birth) of the Hawaiian Islands and the presence of life on, and around them, in the context of genealogical accounts.

All forms of the natural environment, from the skies and mountain peaks, to the watered valleys and lava plains, and to the shoreline and ocean depths are believed to be embodiments of Hawaiian gods and deities. Earth and nature possessed mana (spiritual life forces) that came from the gods. (Maly)

It was the nature of place that shaped the cultural and spiritual view of the Hawaiian people. ‘Cultural Attachment’ embodies the tangible and intangible values of a culture – how a people identify with, and personify the environment around them.

It is the intimate relationship (developed over generations of experiences) that people of a particular culture feel for the sites, features, phenomena, and natural resources etc., that surround them – their sense of place. This attachment is deeply rooted in the beliefs, practices, cultural evolution and identity of a people. (Kent)

One Hawaiian genealogical account, records that Wakea (the expanse of the sky-father) and Papa-hanau-moku (Papa, who gave birth to the islands) – also called Haumea-nui-hanau-wawa (Great Haumea, born time and time again) – and various gods and creative forces of nature, gave birth to the islands.

As the Hawaiian genealogical account continues, we find that these same god-beings, or creative forces of nature that gave birth to the islands, were also the parents of the first man (Haloa), and from this ancestor all Hawaiian people are descended.

It was in this context of kinship, that the ancient Hawaiians addressed their environment, and it is the basis of the Hawaiian system of land management and use. (Maly)

Before the constitution was established, all property rights for both chiefs and commoners were unstable; the entire control over the land was vested in the king. According to the opinion of learned men the land belongs to the common people, and property rights are to be vested in the commoners.

In old days the inheritance of the family burial place, the caves and secret burial places of our ancestors was handed down from these to their descendants without the intrusion of a single stranger unless by consent of the descendant, so that wherever a death occurred the body was conveyed to its inheritance.

These immovable barriers belonged to burial rights for all time. The rule of kings and chiefs and their land agents might change, but the burial rights of families survived on their lands. Here is one proof of the people’s right to the land.” (Kamakau)

With this right of the common people to the land is connected an inherent love of the land of one’s birth inherited from one’s ancestors, so that men do not (willingly) wander from place to place but remain on the land of their ancestors. The Kona man does not wander to ʻEwa or Koʻolau, nor does the ʻEwa man change to Waialua.

Whether rich or impoverished and barren, his love is unchanged; he cannot treat the land with contempt. However good the land on which he later lives he will wish to return to the land of his birth.

The land so worthless in the eyes of a stranger is good to him. But today the habit of going away for an education or sailing abroad has undermined this old feeling for the land. (Kamakau)

In old days captives might be carried away in war or friends and favorites taken into the households of chiefs, but on the whole the common people remained on the land inherited from their ancestors, and a family lived continuously on the land of their birth.

True the chiefs had the right to the fruits of the land and the property of the people, and when a chief was overthrown in war his followers also moved on. But it was they who were the wanderers. (Kamakau)

The people born of the soil remained according to the old saying, O ko luna pohaku no ke kaʻa ilalo, ʻaʻole i hiki i ko lalo pohaku ke kaʻa (It is the top stone that rolls down; the stone at the bottom stays where it is.) (Kamakau) The image shows the Islands from space. (NASA)